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As a trucking business, getting paid on time is essential to running your business. An invoice is an important document, recording the transaction between your trucking company and the customer. Whether you've delivered from across the country or within your county, you'll need to issue an invoice to get paid.
Creating professional invoices is a critical aspect of getting paid. Any invoice you send to a customer acts as a legal document, proving the debt they owe to your trucking business. Until invoices are paid, they're classified as accounts receivable, which helps you keep track of your cash flow.
When you send customers invoices that are clear, concise, and sent within a timely manner, the odds of you getting paid on time increase. As a small business owner, making sure you have enough money to continue daily operations is essential, which is why getting paid soon after the service is completed is important. In fact, when small businesses fail, it's usually because they faced a cash-flow issue and not because of a lack of business. The best way to avoid this issue is to send accurate invoices and keep track of your cash flow.
Skynova's invoice template allows you to create clean and professional invoices in minutes. Using our free template, fill in the basic information every invoice needs and customize specific sections. Our detailed template helps ensure that you don't miss any critical invoice information, avoiding unpaid invoices and saving you time.
Typically, trucking company invoices need to be detailed. Trucking services entail a lot, especially depending on the distances in which you travel for work. For this reason, following an invoice template will be your best bet in ensuring that you have included the essential information.
Here's what a trucking invoice should include:
Following an invoice template ensures that you're including the required information. Additionally, following an invoice template helps your business look more professional, as it will not be cluttered. However, many businesses want to personalize their invoices.
Skynova's invoice templates allow you to add custom elements, fitting your trucking company's invoicing needs. Simply select "Show Customization Options" at the top of the invoice and unlock three additional customization options:
Online invoicing helps small businesses get paid quickly and conveniently. Simply create the trucking invoice and send it to your customer in minutes. Speedy and efficient, sending your invoices through email notifies the customer of their bill and increases the chance of getting paid faster.
Although you could send the invoice by mail, sending the trucking invoice over email is the fastest way. Once you've created the trucking invoice and checked that all the details are correct, draft an email to go along with it.
To save time, create a basic email template that you can reuse. Personalize your invoice email to fit the exact customer, adding the recipient's name, invoice number, trucking service provided, payment due date, payment methods, and your contact information. Then, attach the invoice as a PDF or send it directly from your Skynova account.
Before you send the invoice to the customer via email, make sure that you've included an email subject line. Not only is it more professional to include a relevant subject line but it will also help prevent the customer from deleting what they might have assumed as just another random email.
As a trucker, managing your business and driving long distances are your top priorities. Staying on top of invoice due dates is something that might fall by the wayside from time to time, impacting when you'll get paid even more. Skynova's invoice software helps small business owners like you track and manage invoices. As a result, you can send payment reminders to customers as the payment due date approaches, avoiding a potentially awkward situation.
Following the steps and tips listed above, you may not have to follow up on invoices. When payment methods and instructions are clear, customers usually pay within a timely manner. However, this is not always the case.
Sometimes, technology doesn't run smoothly or they may have forgotten to pay the freight bills. Whatever the case, as a small business owner, you will need to check in with the customer.
Calling the customer is usually the most courteous and professional way to remind the customer of the trucking invoice. Alternatively, you can follow up with a short and clear email to remind the customer that the invoice payment is due.
Writing invoices by hand or using Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and Google sheets is time-consuming. Following a detailed invoice template not only speeds up the invoicing process significantly but it also reduces the risk of missing critical information. With Skynova's invoice software, you can edit, print, and even download the trucking invoice as a PDF.
Additionally, we've made following up and managing your invoices even simpler. When you send a trucking invoice with our software, you will be alerted when the client opens the invoice. This tracking capability helps avoid late payments due to a minor misspelling in the email address or an email that's accidentally sent to spam. Ultimately, our invoicing software helps make the invoicing process significantly more efficient.
The content within this article is meant to be used as a general guideline for invoicing and may not apply to your specific situation. Always consult with a professional accountant to ensure that you're meeting accounting standards.